Two Bosses Enter: Echo of Tyrande vs. Warlord Zon'ozz

In Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches, bosses, leaders, and powerful figures of World of Warcraft face off in the squared circle. Your vote determines who wins and claims the season title.

As the poll closes for last week's matchup. the Echo of Sylvanas from the End Time dungeon successfully trumped the second raid boss to be a part of Two Bosses Enter, Yor'sahj the Unsleeping. Looks like this unsleeper is being put down for the night, if you catch my drift. You don't? Oh, Yor'sahj lost. By 800 votes. Another surprisingly close match, considering who Sylvanas is.

This week's matchup proves to be another fun one, especially for the commenters, who are doing their best to reconcile raid mechanics and 5-man mechanics while remembering that this is about spirit and fun. The Echo of Tyrande, leader of the night elves and caretaker of Nordrassil and the druid barrows, will have to pull out every trick in the book as she goes up against Warlord Zon'ozz, one of the two generals at the helm of the assault on Wyrmrest Temple.

Now the fate of these two champions is in your hands. Who wins it, loyal readers and fans? Does the Echo of Tyrande have the strength of will to stand up against the madness of the Old Gods' servant Warlord Zon'ozz?

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The rules of the ring

The WoW Insider Ring is considered neutral territory, where both combatants are able to access their usual encounter mechanics and abilities. If you can't visualize it inside the squared circle, visualize it someplace else -- but you must take into consideration all of each bosses' abilities and mechanics.

Assume that each opponent is intelligent and capable of strategic thinking.

All of the competitors' abilities, including crowd control and other effects to which bosses are usually immune, work on their opponents (with apologies to considerations of lore on this point).

Don't get caught up in gameplay mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter.

Don't neglect style, story, and scale. Everything is a factor; seeking balance is your goal as a spectator and judge.

In Corner One: Echo of Tyrande

Deep within the eternal night of the Emerald Dragonshrine sits, ever waiting for salvation, whispers of the being once known as Tyrande Whisperwind. Ripped from time and abandoned to the nether after Deathwing's successful sundering of Azeroth, the night elf leader now rests eternally, the shrine blocking out the moon she so reveres. Will you bring light back to Elune's most faithful servant, ever faithful even when all things were undone?

I suspect that Tyrande will be a fan favorite in the tournament alongside Sylvanas because there are few women who get to be a part of the tournament. Most elemental bosses, which Cataclysm was full of, are predominantly depicted as male. It's just the way things are. Women who can dominate in the ring are going to garner votes, because who doesn't love a kickass lady? Especially one who has to do practically everything while her lazy husband sleeps for thousands of years.

Long ago, in a time when recording history was of no concern to the darkness, the Old Gods fought over primeval Azeroth, a Titan creation infested with the universe's most seething chaos. C'Thun, N'zoth, Yogg-Saron, and other great beings fought for an eternity, exerting their influence on all the creatures of the young planet. Warlord Zon'ozz, the faceless one, existed then and fought for N'zoth without hesitation or fear. Now, N'zoth's greatest weapon against the Titans and Azeroth, Deathwing the Destroyer, is in danger of being felled by a mortal and his ancient artifact. Warlord Zon'ozz is called to the front lines of the Hour of Twilight -- lay siege to Wyrmrest Temple, and do not let the Dragon Soul be activated.

Zon'ozz's encounter mechanics were some of the hardest to wrap my head around in terms of what they would have to change from normal mode to make the fight accesible in the Raid Finder. It turns out Blizzard thought of this, like it usually does, and the mechanic is similar but of a different scale. Players still get a feel for the bouncing ball, but the mechanic has built-in autocorrects just in case mistakes are made.

Psychic Drain Warlord Zon'ozz channels a waves of psychic force in a cone in front of himself, dealing damage.

Disrupting Shadows Covers enemies with Disrupting Shadows, inflicting damage over time, more damage, and a knockback on dispel

Void of the Unmaking Summons the Void of the Unmaking, which will Void Diffusion after colliding with an enemy, dealing massive damage to all in range and bounching the Void back in the opposite direction.

Zon'ozz will become more vulnerable if his Void of the Unmaking collides with him.

Last Week's Winner: Echo of Sylvanas

With a fairly decent 700-vote margin, the Echo of Sylvanas takes last week's matchup home and moves onward to the next round of the tournament. Sylvanas is going to be a fan favorite in this tournnament, I can feel it. Utilizing the encounter-specific abilities and Sylvanas' own cunning, the Dark Lady stomped this nightmare back into Old God city.

Commentor clundgren gave his outcome of the fight in the plainest way possible. Sometimes you just don't need too many words to describe a thing.

Let's see...one of the greatest tacticians Azeroth has ever known, and such a badass hunter that she can shoot down an ice barrier with *arrows*, versus a guy who stands still for much of the fight and eats slime.

Tough call. Tough call.

Not really. Sylvanas crushes him. Unlike Vanessa, in this case the hawt outfit is just a bonus.

So arrogant! So flippant. It's that attitude that got Vanessa VanCleef defeated in season 2. You do not want to catch all of your undead, plagued chickens before they hatch, now do you?

Rai gave the fight to Sylvanas due to her ability to assess her opponent. By gaining the upper hand with an understanding of how slime summoning works, Sylvanas can exploit Yor'sahj's own immobility with her own devestating attack.

"Assume that the opponents share similar levels, health pools, and comparative overall damage output" is the key thing to take note before I explain why I'm voting for Sylvanas.

Yor'sahj has a lot of nasty abilities here and might stand a chance if void bolt began stacking up, despite the fact a lot of the abilities are designed for multiple targets and Sylvanas is on her own (for most of the fight).

If comparative overall damage output is the name of the game, then Yor'sahj would be in trouble. Sylvanas' sacrifice ability is a killer: and if not, then more than enough to win this for her. Sylvanas is cunning, she'd realise that while Yor'sahj is channeling his oozes, he is unable to move. Therefore, that's the best time for her to summon her circle of ghouls. The ghouls would reach Yor'sahj around the same time his oozes would, if not before - either way he has no time to move out of his impending doom.

Even if he survived one, one of the three oozes would die from Wracking Pain so even with the best of luck, Yor'sahj just wouldn't be able to win this.

Awesome comments and accounts of the fights this time, guys. The Echo of Sylvanas has moved on to the next round, and I'm absolutely sure that this will not be the last time you see her around here.

Vote now for who wins the epic matchup this week. Leave your comments and accounts of the battle below. Go, go, go!

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Set aside the world order -- let the WoW Insider Ring determine who's the champion! Your votes determine the outcome in WoW Insider's series of fantasy deathmatches, Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves.